A Shooting Star
by Kitale
Summary: Brennan shares a story from her past and Booth realizes that they may have met, once, years before they became partners. B


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Bones.

**Summary:** Brennan shares a story from her past and Booth realizes that they may have met, once, years before they became partner. B&B.

**A/N: **This story takes place during season three, episode 3x07 The Boy in the capsule. (It's the episode where Booth gives Brennan the Smurf at the end) Well, I was watching that episode and Brennan mentions a boy she use to like, Andy Fluger. And I thought…you know, why don't you just read it, instead. Haha

Oh, and btw I mention the movie _Titanic _in here. Just wanted to put that out there because the movie was made in 1997, and that was obliviously not seventeen years ago. So, for this story, let's just pretend that Titanic was made earlier.

--

**A Shooting Star **

"Booth, that wasn't humiliating. That was you showing off your Alpha male –"

"Bones," he groaned. "Please, please _stop _with the Alpha male crap. Kay?" She turned to look out the diner window, losing herself in a thousand thoughts, none of which Booth could guess. Sighing, he glanced over at her. Never in his life did he expect her to get so upset over a _Smurf! _"Look Bones, I'm sorry that I laughed. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"I want you to tell me a humiliating story, Booth."

Booth let out a frustrated sigh. "I just did!"

"Kissing a girl is not humiliating!"

He glared. "_Christina Stryver_ was my first kiss, Bones. You don't know who that is, so you wouldn't understand. Everyone laughed."

"You enjoyed it though," she pointed out to him and he couldn't help the award winning grin tugging on the corner of his lips.

"Who was your first kiss, Bones?" Booth questioned after a minute of silence.

"It doesn't matter," she told him quickly – too quickly.

Booth shoved his fork in his mouth and angrily shook his head. "Oh, no! You don't get off _that_ easily."

She dropped her eyes shyly and began to push her food around on her plate. "It doesn't matter."

"It couldn't have been _that _bad."

"I never said it was bad. In fact, it was quite the opposite." A smile lit her face and her eyes became a dazed mystery.

"At least tell me his name."

"I… I…don't know," she mumbled.

"What?"

"I don't know – well, I don't know his _real _name. Okay?" she huffed, and seeing the confused look on his face she continued. "It was at a Halloween party, there was a lot, _a lot_ of beer. He was just being nice."

"Okay, _now _I'm interested – and wait Dr. Temperance Brennan drank_ beer_ under age?"

"Don't look at me like that, Booth! I was sixteen. _Everyone _was drinking at this party."

Booth laughed loudly. So teenage Bones hadn't spent her entire time studying. Who would have thought? "Okay, at least tell me what his _fake _name was." He saw her debating look and quickly he added, "I won't laugh. I promise."

"That's what you said the last time, remember?"

"Come on, Bones. I promise."

She sighed, "It was a Halloween party on this kid's yacht. His parents were out of town and he invited, basically, our entire class. Anyway, I got drunk and this boy – who was from out of town – was making fun of me because I didn't know the movie Titanic. He told me his name was Leo."

At that Booth began to violently cough on his apple pie. "DiCapiro?" he coughed out and she nodded. "What'd you tell him your name was?" he asked nervously.

Brennan eyed him suspiciously, confused by his reaction; it was exactly the opposite of what she had been suspecting. "Clara."

"Bow?"

She raised an eyebrow, but nevertheless she nodded. "Yeah… how'd you know that?"

"I just guessed… Las Vegas…remember?" Booth tugged on the collar of his shirt and prayed silently to himself that his partner couldn't see the heat creeping its way into his cheeks.

"Are you okay, Booth?"

"Oh, yeah. Fine." He gulped down his water and slammed the glass on the table when he was done. "So did you just… kiss a complete stranger?"

She scowled, completely forgetting about his current appearance. "It wasn't like that, Booth. He was rude at first, but one thing lead to another and we kissed."

He bit his lip as he tried to remember_ that_ party. Could it really be? Of course he had been drunk, but still… what were the odds? He had been from out of town – staying with his cousin and he had gone to a Halloween party on a yacht and gotten trashed. But he had convinced himself that it had been a dream, so therefore, it couldn't be. Could it?

"See, Booth. I told you that you wouldn't understand. I know it sounds… kinky, but you had to be there."

He gulped; she had _no _idea how wrong she was. He did understand. It wasn't kinky – it was, in fact, perfect.

--

--

_**19 years ago. **_

Seeley Booth stumbled out into the cool night air with a beer bottle in hand. He leaned causally across the yacht's railing and desperately, he tried not to hurl over the edge into the dark waters below. And at that moment he vowed to _never_ go to a Halloween party, on boat, away from shore, out of town, and to get drunk all in one night again. And that's when he saw _her. _A mysterious auburn haired beauty dressed in a skimpy black dress and had the legs of a Goddess. And at _that _moment he scratched his old vow and established a new one; to _always _go to a Halloween party, on a boat, away from shore, out of town, and to get drunk all in one night again. Yes, he thought. This was definitely what being seventeen was all about.

He glanced out of the side of his eye, studying her as he watched her slump against the railing not to far away from him. She held a Miller light in her hand and by the looks of it, this wasn't her first one. But even drunk, she was still beautiful. Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of anger, confusion. It was a look, almost, of pale surprise; the glossy blue eyes remaining a mystery. Her dress was black and it whispered. It was then, when her harsh, yet raspy voice brought him back to reality. Her glare told him that she had caught him staring.

"What?" came her harsh tone.

Booth took a glance over his shoulder to see if she was talking to someone else, but she wasn't. In fact, they were the only ones out on the deck; everyone else was inside dancing their hearts away. "Nothing," he sent her his charm smile, but by now she was glancing up at the full moon. Frowning, he tried his second trick (A trick he would _only _do while on a boat... and drunk)– one that _always _got him attention, laughs, and flirting. "I'm king of the world!" he shouted into the air. He turned back to look at her and he gave her a grin that would simultaneously weakened any girls knees, but to his utter shock and disappointment the only thing he got out of her was another drunken glare.

"What?"

He sighed. This was definitely not the reaction he had been hoping for. "Come on. Titanic… the movie?"

She stared blankly at him. "What movie?"

"Kate Winslet. Leonardo DiCapiro."

Another blank stare and he huffed.

"I'm flying Jack!" he adopted a high pitch parody of a girl's voice and slumped against her in mock swoon. "Jack!"

"My name is _not_ Jack," she slurred and she roughly pushed him away from her. "And I can tell you now, that you are _not_ flying."

"And thank you captain oblivious." Another icy glare, a glare that sent shivers down his spine, and yet he couldn't tear his eyes away from hers. "Seriously, though. You've never seen Titanic? What planet are you from?"

"Earth."

He mentally smacked himself. She _had _to be kidding, but the seriousness of her tone and glare told him that she thought he was nothing more than an insect waiting to be stepped on. His eyebrow fused together in an attempt to figure her out, but the only conclusion he could muster was that she was playing hard to get.

"Stop staring." She fidgeted under his gaze and desperately she tried to pull her dress up and down, trying to cover her entire body. She oblivious didn't show her skin to often.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. "Sorry. Sorry." The heavy rock music blasted from inside and he debated if he should stay with this loner or go find – _anyone_. No one was outside - at least there were people inside, but no matter how hard he tried to convince himself to go back to the party he just couldn't leave her.

"You're staring again."

"I'm trying to figure out who you're suppose to be," he lied. In reality he had been picturing what she looked like naked.

"Clara Bow," she told him in an offensive tone.

Seeley eyed the auburn haired beauty, taking in the little black dress and red lip stick. "The silent film star?"

She pressed her lips together in a thin line, debating if he was absurd or happy by her choice of costume. "And what are you suppose to be?"

"Nobody."

"Hmm. Suites you well."

He glared at her. "You're a smart ass. You know that?"

She shrugged. "I'm smart, but I can guarantee you that it has nothing to do with my ass."

"Unbelievable," he muttered. "Okay, you know what. I'm leaving now. Goodbye, Ms…?" He held out his hand and she just stared at him. "This is the part where you tell me your name," he hinted.

"Clara," she lied.

"Clara? Let me guess, and your last name's Bow?"

She nodded and something remarkable happened – a smile lit her beautiful face. "Yup. That's about right," she told him mockingly.

He nodded, but his feet stood rooted in place. At that moment he vowed to recreate that smile at any means necessary. Seriously, though how hard could it be? But then again, he had never known a girl could be _this _difficult to begin with.

"I thought you were leaving," she told him softly.

"I've changed my mine."

"Excellent," she smirked. He grinned, but it was immediately replaced with a frown as she uttered her next sarcastic response, "Does the new one work better?"

He glared at her, but for the first time he was speechless. Could she really be this naïve? Had she been living under a rock? He had millions of pointless, rude comments to tell her, but before he could say anything, he vaguely heard someone calling his name. He turned around quickly and found his drunken cousin and two people he didn't know standing in the doorway.

"See…," his cousin slurred drunkenly, completely missing the last syllable of his name. "Come inside!"

He couldn't help but laugh, for his cousin was dressed as one of the Blues Brothers – a very drunk Blues Brother. If he had gotten the memo about this party being a costume party he would have been the other one, but of course his stupid cousin had forgot to mention it to him. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Kay, but don't stay out here _too_ long. The Smurf's brain might rub off on you!"

His cousin and unknown friends irrupted into laughter, probably, some inside joke that he didn't get. He turned back to "Clara" in mid laugh and it wasn't until he saw the pain flashing across her eyes was he aware that the inside joke was about her. "Hey," he told her softly, more gentle than before. "Ignore, Andy. He can be an ass sometimes – well, all the time." The only response he got was her flinging back her head and draining the last of her beer.

"You don't know _my_ name," he challenged, anything to get her mind off of his cousin's rude comment. "Would you like to know it?"

"No," she told him, not daring to meet his gaze, but he could tell by the sound of her voice that she was lying.

"It's Leo. Leo DiCapiro."

_That _got her attention. "From the movie, Titanic?"

He smiled his charming smile. "Now, I thought you didn't see that movie."

"I didn't."

They were seized by a moment of silence, and with each passing second he was sure that a bomb was going to explode at any moment. Not taking the silence any longer he asked, "Would you like another beer? I'm going to get another one…"

She eyed him intently, trying to figure out were he stood. "I… alright."

He nodded, ran inside, and was back in record time. To his surprise she was still there, and he couldn't help but smile. "Here you go." He handed her the beer and she nodded a silence thanks.

"So where are you from?" she questioned him, trying not to sound _too _interested. "I haven't seen you around school."

"I'm from Philly, but I'm staying with my cousin for a little bit." He chuckled, "He sorta forgot to mention that this party was a costume party."

A faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

--

--

They were drunk. An hour had passed and Seeley was sure that his head was going to explode. Her beautiful laugh brought him out of his thoughts, and he prayed to God that he wouldn't be too drunk to remember this night. He wanted to cherish this moment forever because he knew it was too good to be true.

"No, stop!" she slurred, but the laugh that was escaping from her mouth told him not to. He laughed also, as his fingers drummed across her stomach, sides, and back. Who would have thought that _she_ was ticklish. "Stop."

He did, but only for a moment; a moment that gave him just enough time to whisper in her ear. "Make me." God, he was _so _wasted. And that's when she looked him in the eye and he was positive that he had just died and gone to heaven. They were seized by silence as he eyed her lips hesitantly. Would it ruin the moment if he kissed her? And before he could make a decision the sound of Foreigner blasted from inside the yacht, completely breaking their spell. A smile let his face and coherently, he began to shake his head up and down. "I _love _this song."

She just shook her head, confused. "I don't know this song."

He rolled his eyes as he strummed his imaginary guitar. "Oh, please. Everybody loves Foreigner. Talk about a guilty pleasure."

"_Well I'm hot blooded check it and see." _

He grabbed her wrist, ignoring the jolt of electricity that rushed through him at the touch, and pulled her closer to him. She took a nervous glance over her shoulder and frantically looked around for any witnesses, but they were the only ones out on the deck, everyone else was inside.

"_Got a fever of 103." _

"Dance," he shouted. By now he was on the guitar solo.

She bit her lip, fighting the urge to give in.

"_Come on baby do you do more than dance?" _

He pouted and she couldn't help but join in. Together they sang the next line of the song, "I'm hot blooded. Hot blooded!"

He broke out into a drum solo then, and she began to dance more freely beside him, and it wasn't until she sent him a smile that made his heart melt was he aware how beautiful she really was. And he wasn't referring about her looks – no, he already knew that she was smoking hot – He was actually referring to her personality – her beautiful and fun personality. A personality he hadn't known could possibly exist, and yet here she was dancing and smiling like a little kid on Christmas. But then again, he does have that affect on people. What could he say?

"…_Hot blooded, I'm a little bit high. Hot blooded, you're a little bit shy," _They sang the finale lines of the song together. "_Hot blooded, you're making me sing. Hot blooded, for your sweet sweet thing.__"_

The song slowly faded away and for brief moment they were seized by a state of awkwardness, but with a nervous glance they irrupted into laughter. He slumped against her playfully, and completely forgetting that she wouldn't be able to hold his weight they fell to the floor, which resulted into even more giggles.

"Could you imagine if someone saw us," he managed between laughs. Neither of them made any moves to get up. It might have been from the beer or maybe it was because he simply didn't want to, but he couldn't be sure.

She nodded. "They would probably think were crazy." She laughed again, and Seeley swore that he had never heard a sound more beautiful than that. Her laugh faded into a sweet smile.

Seeley sighed softly to himself and for the first time since he met her he found his eyes tearing away from hers and up to the starry sky above. A sky so vast and full of light, it felt like the heavens were watching him, leading him on, and sending him a little bit of their luck. It was then that a tail of light caught his eye and a smile lit his face.

"Look," he shouted, pointing to the sky. "A shooting star." Something flashed across her eyes, a mix between awe and hatred.

"My dad use to tell me that every time you saw one it was a soul going to heaven," she told him sadly, like she was talking about a friend's funeral rather than a happy memory from the past. Her voice - it was so lifeless, full of pain and he wanted nothing more than to kiss her problems away.

"I like that," he told her.

"But then I found out that shooting stars are not stars at all. They're just rocks that enter the atmosphere and catch fire under friction."

"What's the fun in that?" He questioned. She shrugged and slowly, he leaned over to whisper in her ear, lingering a little longer than necessary, "But you can still wish on it. Can't you? What's stopping you?"

"Why? What you're wishing on is only a trail of debris," she told him bluntly.

He smirked at her logic, but quickly shook his head, dismissing her answer. "Don't think about it like that. Think about them as…angels – granting a wish to someone who cares."

"I don't –"

He interrupted her, "Just forget about all that science jumbo. If you could have one wish – hypothetically –what would you wish for?"

"Hypothetically I don't believe in wishes."

He glared at her, and in a more intense tone, he repeated his question, "If you could have one wish, what would you wish for?" He watched her as her eyes stared up into the starry night sky. For a moment he thought that she was ignoring him, but to his shock she actually answered his question.

"Something I can't have," she whispered, losing herself in a thousand thoughts, not one of which Seeley could guess. He stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out what she had meant by it, and by the sound of her voice he assumed that whatever it was, it was something that meant a lot to her. "But it doesn't matter," she added, recovering quickly from whatever it was that she had been thinking about. "Wishes don't come true."

"Sure they do, but only if your wish is reasonable. You can't go wishing someone back from the dead… it's not possible," he told her so softly, she had to lean closer to hear him. "And when you make a wish it doesn't mean that it'll happen in the near future. It could happen within years. You just have to be patient."

"And why is that?"

"Because some wishes are harder to fulfill than others and they want it to be just perfect."

Her eyes grew cross, trying to understand his absurd opinion about stars. "And what do they – the people who grant them – get out of it?"

"A smile. A full-hearted smile."

"It seems like a lot for just a smile," she pointed out stubbornly.

He nodded, grinning softly at her. "You'd be surprised. A person would do a lot to make someone they love smile."

"But it doesn't matter," she told him, completely ignoring his answer. "Dreams, miracles… they're all just a load of crap. Believe me I would know."

"Is it possible that the miracle was not something that happened to you, but rather something that didn't?"

She regarded him intently, contemplating his answer with curiosity. She had never once thought of it like that before. He had a point, but… she wasn't going to let him win that easily. Sighing, she tore her eyes away from his and gazed up at the stars again. "It still doesn't matter. They don't exit. Nothing does. Not dreams, not Miracles, and _especially_ not happy endings. All of that, it's just lies parents make up, so they don't have to tell their kids the true horrors of our world."

Seeley stared at her, perplexed. Never in his life had he heard such a negative view on life. Was that really what she thought life was all about? "How do you know happy endings don't exist?" he ventured.

"I just do," she huffed. "Happy endings might exist for you, but they sure don't exist for _me_ and a thousand other lost causes."

"But everything is okay in the end," he pointed out.

She was shaking her before he even finished his sentence. "You're wrong. It's not okay –"

"If it's not okay, then it's not the end."

She refused to back down. "But that end will not have a happy ending."

"How do you know?"

"I… I just do."

"Hmm," he stated.

"What?"

"_Attention, we'll be docking in five minutes," _came a voice over the load speaker. He helped her off the floor and slowly they began to walk around the boat to where they would be let off.

"Well," he began. "I guess there could be happy endings at the end of each day. Not all days though because nobody's life's perfect. A good day could be considered a happy ending at the end of the day." He was rambling, he knew, probably from the beer, and though it didn't make any sense, he still continued. "Today's a good day."

She was staring at him as if he had grown a second head. "I don't know what that means."

He sat up then, and took one more look at the stars before staring back into her glassy eyes. "Do you believe in _those _happy endings?"

"A good day?" she asked and he nodded. "Well, yes, but I wouldn't call it a happy ending."

"I would." At that moment they locked eyes, and on impulse he gently traced her lips with his fingers, causing her to freeze. He wasn't sure if it was the beer or simply curiosity, but either way he didn't care. Slowly, as if asking her for permission, he lightly brushed his lips against hers. It was short and sweet, everything a first kiss should be. Pulling away he smiled down at her.

"What'd you know," he whispered softly, a gentle smile tugging at his lip. "Wishes do come true."

She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter a word, the yacht's door burst open and dozens drunken kids spilled out onto the deck. He glanced over his shoulder just for a moment – a second at most – and by the time he looked back, she was gone.

**Present day**

"Booth… are you even listening to this story?"

He snapped out of his thoughts then and a smile graced his lips at the realization that it hadn't been a dream. For years he had convinced himself that this girl had been a figment of his imagination. That night had been so hazy, yet so clear, so he was almost positive that it had been a dream. And now that he finally found out that it wasn't a dream, and the fact that he had been _Bones _first kiss made his life.

"I'm listening, Bones." And then a frown took a hold of him as he remembered the ending. _She _had left _him. _"Why'd you leave?"

Brennan dropped her eyes shyly. "I don't know. I never kissed a boy before and he was from out of town. I didn't know him, he didn't know me. I guess I was… afraid that he would fine out about my past. At the time, I had been in the foster system."

"Oh…"

"He told me that his wish came true, Booth, but how come mine didn't?"

"What'd you wish for?" he asked her curiously.

She bit her lip, hesitating for a moment. "When I got home, after the party that night, I saw another shooting star. I wanted to test his theory about wishes, so I made a wish and it never came true."

"I thought you said that he said it take's time. That you have to be patient."

"It's been nineteen years. I don't think it's coming true," she told him crossly.

"Was it a reasonable wish? What did you wish for?"

She sighed, "You'll laugh."

"No I won't. I promise."

She eyed him intently before finally giving in. "I wished that I would see him again."

Booth couldn't help the smile that lit his face. "That's not a stupid wish," he told her with such sincerity, it caused her to look him directly in the eye.

"But it never came true," she told him sadly.

How could he tell her that it already had? A smiled pulled at the corner of his lips. Maybe wishes, miracles, and happy endings really do exist.

_The End_

* * *

**That's the end! I was thinking about conituing it, but I probably won't. I guess it depends on how many people want me to continue it... i'll see. **

**But for now it's the End! **

**Please tell me what you thought.**


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